Xiaomi Mi 6 tipped to feature the Sony IMX400 sensor

Last year’s MWC saw the announcement of the Xiaomi Mi 5, but there was no Mi 6 to be seen in Barcelona this time around. Instead, it’s been a steady flow of leaks and rumors on the upcoming Xiaomi phone and there’s a new one from today to add to that list.

A source out of China now states that there will be two different-sized versions of the Mi 6 – a 5.15-inch one like the Mi 5, and a 5.7-inch one for phablet lovers. Both will be equipped with the Snapdragon 835 chipset, which is in line with previous reports.

Xiaomi Mi 5 from last year

What’s curious about this particular report is that the Mi 6 will supposedly use the Sony IMX400 sensor – the same 3-layer stacked CMOS imager Sony announced a month ago. The sensor is featured in the Xperia XZ Premium and XZs and Sony showed off its 960fps high frame rate shooting capabilities in Barcelona – we even have a few videos of our own.

Previously, the Mi6 was rumored to employ the IMX386, and that still makes a little more sense – after all, why share you top-end sensor with the competition from day one? Then again, Xiaomi could be given a ‘lite’ version of the imager – let’s say limited to 480fps. Pure speculation in our end, though, this last sentence.

As for the original source, it also claims that the larger Mi 6 (likely the Mi 6 Plus) will come with a dual camera setup, not unlike a certain iPhone 7 Plus.

The rumored launch date of the Xiaomi Mi 6 is April 16, so expect even more leaks and guesswork for another month.